


Disappear

by Auggusst



Series: The Soldier And The Scientist [31]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Calm Before The Storm, Intimacy, M/M, Motorcycle ride, Sad Fluff, Slice of Life, Steve Rogers's Motorcycle, romantic, shortly before civil war, soft, sort of melancholy, this sort of sad comfort is exactly my brand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 20:23:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20458937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Auggusst/pseuds/Auggusst
Summary: Steve and Tony go on a motorcycle ride to get away from it all, about a week before the Sokovia Accords come into play.





	Disappear

**Author's Note:**

> The image this fic presented got in my head this morning driving to campus and I couldn't let it go. Also Lana Del Rey's new album came out, and one of her new songs definitely set the auditory mood. Please give it a listen before/while/after reading. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU_EGJOQ69o

“Let’s go for a ride?” Steve asked, more of a statement than a question, standing in the doorway with a leather jacket slung over his elbow and his keys in hand.

Tony looked up from his desk, from the mountain of papers on his left and right, scattered and disorganized. He rubbed his stinging eyes—it was only 6 or so in the evening, but it felt much later. Maybe it was just his fucked up schedule. A headache picked at the back of his brain too, and he was feeling admittedly overwhelmed.

Steve shared that sentiment. There had been a particularly difficult mission a day or so ago, that seemed to have more collateral damage than anything. While the team wrestled with guilt, and Steve tried to soothe it, Tony handled the legal side of it all, as per usual. But just because they dealt with situations like this with practiced ease, didn’t mean the mental load lessened. The blond had tried drawing for two hours in an attempt to unwind, starting over and over and erasing and scrapping sheets, before he couldn’t stand it anymore, before he felt like he was going to jump out of his skin. Steve needed to get out. He needed peace, room to breathe, but most of all, he needed Tony.

The brunet had been in his office most of the day, and showed no signs of escaping soon, but Steve planned on changing that. He had abandoned his sketchbook in favor of his motorcycle keys, and made his way to his partner, confident that he needed a break just as badly. He was right.

The scientist let out a quiet sigh at the offer, brushed a hand over his face. “Yeah,” he replied, standing from his seat, dropping the pen in his hands. The paperwork be damned—Steve was asking for him, was offering a distraction, and he couldn’t refuse, not this time.

Steve wrapped an arm around his shoulder as they walked down the halls in silence. Tony leaned into the touch, didn’t have words, but hoped the hand he braced on the blond’s back conveyed enough. They stopped at their room for Tony to grab his own jacket, and made their way to the garage. It was still warm out, though the interior of the garage was cool and dark. Their footsteps echoed on the concrete.

The brunet tugged on his black jacket as Steve settled on his bike. Steve held out a hand to him, and although the gesture was as familiar as anything, it settled something in Tony’s core that had been eating away at him for days, weeks maybe. He took Steve’s hand without question and pulled himself up on the bike, got comfortable behind him. He wrapped his arms around the soldier’s midsection, held tightly.

When the engine sprung to life and purred beneath them, Steve let out an audible sigh of relief. He brushed a hand over Tony’s, comforted by the scientist’s weight on his back, and took them out on the road. The sun was shining, already hanging a little low, and the breeze, a little cool, was kind, rushing through the blond’s hair as he drove.

Tony didn’t have words. Maybe he didn’t need them right now. Maybe it was enough to just be together, to watch the compound recede in the distance, to watch the trees pass in a blur of green, the bursts of sunlight filtered through the foliage. The road was mostly empty, comfortably isolated. Tony could count on one hand the amount of times Steve had taken him out on his bike— it had always been his thing, just like Tony went out in his suit sometimes. They had their spaces, their boundaries, and retreated to them more often than usual lately. But he was here now, pressed against the soldier’s back, the rumble of the engine beneath him, and it was nice. It was nicer than anything had been for a while, including them.

There was quite an explosive argument a few days ago, and the week’s mission, which could objectively have been considered a failure, didn’t exactly make things better. They retreated to their own parts of the compound, and if Tony stayed in his lab late enough that by the time he crawled into bed, Steve was already asleep, no one made a comment about it, but he could tell the rest of the team knew something was up. Apologies were made, but the wounds hadn’t particularly faded yet. Tony was just...tired. Steve was too. There were moments when things were good, were perfect and happy, and the blond kissed him with abandon, and they laughed and everything was alright, but more than ever, the soldier felt weary, felt the pressures of their responsibility weighing on his bones.

But that didn’t mean he wanted Tony any less. He would love nothing more than to slip off the face of the earth with his partner, to take a chance to work on them, to smooth away the abrasion between them, to brush off the guilt and pain and stress. It’d been too long since they had a vacation, and he wasn’t sure they’d be getting one any time soon.

He tried to put it out of mind as he sped up the bike until his blue eyes stung from the wind. He hadn’t worn a helmet, and neither did Tony. Part of him knew they should have, but he doubted the brunet cared at the moment, and he himself certainly didn’t. What risk could riding without a helmet add to their lives that they didn’t deal with already? Steve tried not to think about it. He focused on the street ahead of him, the faded yellow dashed lines to his left, the ongoing stretch of asphalt before them, comforted by the monotony, the normalcy of it.

Tony exhaled softly behind him, pressed his cheek against the brown leather of Steve’s jacket. For once, he could let his mind go blank, left behind the concerns that sat on his desk, on his shoulders, and in his heart. He knew it wouldn’t last forever, and so did Steve. They had to go home, back to the real world, but wasn’t it nice to pretend? Wasn’t it nice to imagine that it could just be the two of them, forever, without argument, without danger, without strife? Tony dreamed of it as he watched the sun slowly sink during their ride. Eventually the warmth cooled, and the breeze grew fierce as it got darker, and when the brunet shuddered from the cold, Steve turned on the road to bring them home.

Not a single word had passed between them the entire time, and didn’t until they were back inside the compound, but it was okay. It was a comfortable silence, familiar and calm, instead of the frustrated ones that had passed earlier in the week.

Tony rubbed his hands together as they stood in the entrance hall. They were cold from the wind, and so was his face. He glanced up at the blond for a moment, and the connection between brown and blue conveyed something that he couldn’t bring across in words. A moment had barely passed and Steve’s hands closed around his cold fingers, radiating heat. The brunet exhaled softly, in relief, and pulled back, locking his arms around the soldier’s neck instead. He leaned up, and the blond leaned down, and they kissed.

Steve’s hands came up to frame Tony’s face, and pressed his lips more insistently against Tony’s, eyes closed. They kissed until they were breathless, and the scientist’s hands settled on Steve’s chest, and his hands in turn wrapped around the brunet’s midsection.

“I love you,” Steve said softly. His voice was a little raw, whether from lack of use or emotion, the scientist wasn’t sure.

Tony buried his face in the blond’s chest. “I love you too,” he replied, relieved that the soldier still felt that way.

“Thanks…thanks for riding with me,” Steve muttered, brushing a hand through the brunet’s hair.

“Any time,” Tony replied, pulling back to look up at him. He studied his partner’s face, took in the furrow of his brow, the tension in his jaw. He didn’t like that look on Steve, but he wore it a lot lately unfortunately.

“Is everything okay?” Tony asked. He wasn’t sure he would get a straight answer. Steve had been putting on a brave face lately, mainly for the rest of the team, and Tony was sure he was still a little upset about their argument. But still, he had to ask.

The soldier looked down at him, drank in the concern in those deep brown eyes, and nodded. “For now, it is.”

And that was enough.

It had to be enough, because ‘okay’ was in short supply lately. Something was coming to a head, was inching its way closer, and threatened everything they had.

Tony could feel it, had enough experience with hunches to know something was coming, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. What on earth could happen next? He wasn’t sure. Each time he anticipated a problem, it ended up catching him off guard anyway, and usually, things were worse than he thought they would be. Every time he tried to fix something, it just got worse. Was there a way to protect what he had, what they had together? He wasn’t sure.

The thought made his blood cold, and he pulled his partner closer, desperate to keep him there. The blond sensed his apprehension, and tightened his hold in return.

They stood in the hall, holding each other.

Tony wasn’t the religious type, not really, but would pray, if it meant they could survive the coming storm.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I had planned on starting some other fics but this one made itself the most important. Leave your thoughts in a comment!


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